NYC Work Ethics
by J.W.Melmoth
Summary: Inspired by a tumblr discussion about Kurt not picking up his phone at work. Not Blaine/Klaine friendly.


**Pairing/Chars:** Klaine early s4, Isabelle Wright  
**Words:** 723  
**Genre:** general  
**Rating: **all audiences**  
Summary:** Inspired by a tumblr discussion about Kurt not picking up his phone at work. Not Blaine/Klaine friendly, but no bashing :)

* * *

"…and I never would have thought, but it was actually really fun."

"Mmm. That's-"

"I mean, if someone would have told me last year that I'd spend a whole Tuesday night watching Godzilla movies with Sam I'd have said 'no way, Tuesday's Topmodel night', right?"

"Right."

"Anyway, so Sam basically knew them all by heart and he's so good at doing impressions…"

"I know, he lived with us for a while last ye-"

"And I was just laughing the whole time and I just couldn't stop looking at him making all these faces! I must have watched ___him_ more than I actually watched the screen. Kurt, he's ___so_ funny!"

"Yeah, I know, I did spend a lot of time with-"

The door to Isabelle's office opened and she poked her head out.  
"Kurt, could you come in here for a moment?"

Kurt looked up from his doodling on the notebook in front if him and felt his cheeks flush. "Of course," he said quickly. "I have to go, Blaine. Bye!" He disconnected and picked up the notepad, turning a fresh leaf while he hurried in to Isabelle's office, ready to take notes on whatever she wanted him to do.

"Sit down, honey," Isabelle said amicably, and closed the door behind him before sitting down at her desk and clasping her hands in front of her. Kurt did so, nervousness creeping up on him. In the weeks that he had been with her, she had only closed the door to take important calls or complain about someone.

Isabelle took a breath and smiled. She looked like she was giving herself a mental peptalk. "Okay, you know I'm not good at this…being-someone's-boss-thing. I want to be everybody's friend, my therapist keeps telling me that's impossible, but, Kurt, here we are- um. I'm just gonna come out with it."

"Okay?" Kurt answered timidly, not sure what was coming.

"You've been with us for, like, a month-"

"Two weeks," he corrected politely.

"Really? Wow. Feels like you've been here much longer. But that's good, everyone really likes you, Kurt, and you've helped me so much already, I wouldn't know what to do without you-"

Kurt smiled tentatively, relaxing a little, but not too much. Usually compliments and praise coming his way had a 'but' following.

"But-" Isabelle continued, and Kurt's heart sank. "I've noticed that you've, well…been taking quite a lot of personal phone calls. Which I understand! Really, I do. New York is a long way from Ohio and you must really miss your family and your-" She hesitated. "…girl…friend?" she asked carefully, giving Kurt the opening he needed to correct her.

"Boyfriend," he confirmed. Isabelle nodded.

"It's just that, we really need to keep our lines open for our advertisers and for when you know who-" Isabelle jerked her chin up a little and looked up at the ceiling "-calls."

Kurt felt his face glowing hotly. "Of course," he said quickly, "I understand." Had he been blocking the line for Ms Wintour? That was it, then. His short and unillustrious career at . His inner demons grinned at him with the self-satisfied smile of Sebastian Smythe and told him it was time to crawl back to his job at the Lima Bean.

"So, just take it easy with that, okay?" Isabelle continued, and Kurt perked up. He wasn't fired?

Isabelle must have seen the relief showing on his face, and added kindly: "Honey, it's not the end of the world. It's okay. We all do it. Just don't _over_-do it, deal?"

"Deal," Kurt agreed, wondering how he had deserved a boss like Isabelle. She tapped the ipad on her desk for a second to glance at the ebay auction counter on her screen before looking back at him. "I'm bidding on a pair of shoes to go with my red dress for the Fashion Week pre-party, look, you gotta see this-" She walked around the desk to sit on it so she could show him the image on her tablet.

"Oh my god, those are amazing!"

And just like that, the anxious feeling inside of Kurt dissolved. They were back to normal - or as normal as a day at got, anyway. The next time Blaine called to tell him all about his day in a play-by-play recount, he'd ask him to save it for their Skype sessions.


End file.
